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One Nashville girl's journey to becoming a runner

21 Day Fix: I love bread too much for this.

I’ve mentioned that I broke down and bought the 21 Day Fix program. Tomorrow is my first official day.

If you are unfamiliar (which I’m not sure how you can be because it seems like everyone on Facebook is doing it), it is a workout/nutrition program that is designed to help you lose weight and make lifestyle changes while doing it.

The main way it attempts to do this is through portion control. You get different sized containers for different food groups, and you get to eat a certain number of those containers per day. For example, I’m in the 1200-1499 calorie range, so I get three green (veggie) containers, two purple (fruit) containers, four red (protein) containers, (only) two yellow (carb) containers (boooo), one blue (cheese and nuts…ONLY ONE CHEESE??), and one orange (seeds and dressings) per day.

I am not a healthy eater. I love love love love food. I tend to binge on the unhealthy stuff I adore (pizza! Oreos! CHEESE!), don’t eat a lot of veggies (I’ll go on kicks every once in a while, but it’s rare), and sometimes just forget to eat.

The sheer number of containers I get to eat every day astounds me. Honestly, that is probably way more food than I actually eat on a daily basis in total. The difference is that it is mostly proteins and veggies, whereas now my diet is mostly carbs and cheese.

21 Day Fix: eat ALL the carrots!

In addition to the diet stuff, you get seven different workouts (one for each day of the week).

Most people do the 21 Day Fix to lose weight. (I think they advertise that 10-15 pounds is typical. If I lost that amount of weight, I’d be a toothpick.) I am not. I mainly just want to tone up and get in top shape before I start half marathon base training (and, you know, to look good on the beach next month). I wanted this mainly for the workouts and the Shakeology drinks. However, I’ll still do the before and after stuff for you at the end of this journey.

I will warn you that I probably won’t be super strict about the diet stuff all the time (I envision having a sort of “cheat” day–or weekend–where I still watch what I eat but get less strict on the containers). I still need a pizza every so often or I will go nuts.

That said, the program does allow for pizza. For the super low price of two yellow containers and a red container, you can have a fourth of a 12″ pepperoni pizza (which is like…a slice)! I calculate on days when I get Little Caesars, I’m probably eating about 10-12 yellow containers because I love pizza AND I love Crazy Bread. So that would be like…my week’s worth of carbs in one sitting. (And this is why I’m not toned. Pizza DOES taste better than skinny feels. So does cake.) Actually, I’ve mostly refrained from pizza for the last month in preparation for this. I haven’t died yet.

I am also allowed four ounces of wine if I give up one of my precious yellow containers. (Is there even a point to four ounces of wine? And I can’t enjoy my wine WITH my pizza?)

Get ready for a lot of asparagus and carrots, as I think those are about the only two things that go in the green container that I actually enjoy. I’ve experimented with some spinach and broccoli recipes but haven’t gotten past a mere toleration of them yet.

I’m a little sad that black eyed peas take up a yellow container. As do corn and potatoes. Come on, those are healthy(-er than the things I usually eat)! But I feel the need to hoard my yellow containers for yummier things like pasta and bread.

Thank goodness garlic is considered a freebie.

Anyway, I have spent the last few weeks experimenting with recipes and whatnot. I’ll share my favorites in some upcoming posts.

This is one green, one purple, and one blue container. Adding vinaigrette, one orange container.